Roy Law, Community Ministries Director with the Prince George Salvation Army, holds one of 400 Christmas hampers – photos 250News

Prince George, B.C. – The culmination of nearly a month’s hard work is being realized by the Prince George Salvation Army this week as it distributes its annual Christmas hampers.

Captain Neil Wilkinson says they are busy providing 400 of them – just a fraction of the 1,500 hampers that will go out city wide prior to December 25.

“We’re part of a network of organizations that provide Christmas hampers throughout the city,” he says. “So the Seniors Centre, St. Vincent De Paul Society, AWAC, the Native Friendship Centre.”

Wilkinson says each hamper includes breakfast, lunch and the full turkey dinner.

“The Christmas hamper is just enough food for the entire family and it’s a very generous amount of food so while we say it’s for breakfast, lunch and dinner, there’s probably three breakfasts, three lunches, and lots of turkey left over from one meal.” 

On top of the food, he says they provide toys for each child in the family, including stocking stuffers, stuffed animals, and teddy bears from Saturday night’s Prince George Cougars game.

So who are they serving?

“There is no demographic. The demographic for people in need is so vast.We see young single parents, we see struggling families that are working hard to make ends meet,” says Wilkinson.

“One of our biggest growing demographics are seniors. Those recently retired, baby boomers who have been working hard their whole lives and now they’re entering into retirement and they just don’t have enough money at the end of the month to make ends meet.”

As for the need for hampers at Christmas, he says things have been steady over the past few years.

“We noticed a jump in the number of hampers a few years back but it’s been consistent since.”